(CBS Connecticut) –– New Haven Police are investigating an assault Saturday on best-selling novelist and National Book Award winner Colum McCann.

Police say McCann, who was born in Ireland and lives in New York City, may have been trying to help a woman who was being assaulted when the assailant turned on him. He suffered what were described as “significant but nonlife-threatening facial injuries” and has been released from Yale New-Haven Hospital.

Police say they have significant leads in the case and hope to make an arrest soon.

McCann is the author of six novels, including the National Book Award winner “Let the Great World Spin,” published in 2009, and “TransAtlantic, published last summer.